Russia blames Chechen sisters for suicide bombings

Two female suicide bombers behind two of the most deadly militant attacks to hit Russia - the Beslan school massacre and a passenger jet bombing a week earlier - were members of the same family and probably sisters, Russian prosecutors have revealed.

Roza Nagayeva, 30, has been identified by DNA tests as one of two suicide bombers among up to 50 militants who took 1,200 people hostage at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, last September.

She detonated explosives strapped to her chest at the start of the standoff, which ended when special forces stormed the school. In all, 330 people died, half of them schoolchildren, in the fighting that followed.

Prosecutors have established that she was related to Amnat Nagayeva, one of two suicide bombers behind near-simultaneous explosions on board two passenger planes on August 24 which killed 95 people.

She was aboard a Tupolev 134 heading from Moscow's Domodedovo airport to Volgograd with 35 passengers and eight crew. It fell off radar screens at 10.56pm.

The second plane went off air traffic control's radar at 10.53pm and crashed six minutes later, killing its 38 passengers and eight crew. Officials have said Satsita Dzherbikhanova, 37, from the Chechen village of Mair-tup, detonated a bomb on board.

Sergei Prokopov, a spokesman for deputy prosecutor Nikolai Shepel, who heads the Beslan investigation, told the Guardian: "They are relatives, this is absolutely clear - sisters." He said DNA had established their identities with a probability of "over 90%", but held out the possibility they could be cousins.

The two Nagayevas and Dzherbikhanova disappeared at the same time in August 2004 with another woman, Mairam Tubarova, who shared their flat in Grozny.

The authorities had previously thought Roza Nagayeva was the suicide bomber behind a blast at the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow on August 31, the day before the school in Beslan was seized.

Mr Prokopov said the only surviving Beslan militant, Nurpashi Kulayev, had given evidence that he saw two women dressed in black, wearing veils across their faces, join the militants as they gathered at a training camp in the woods near the Ingushetian village of Psedakh the day before the school was seized.

Prosecutors say these women were Roza Nagayeva and Mairam Tubarova. Caucasus families often avenge their relatives' deaths, and the fact that two of the women were sisters may help to explain their motivation. The Guardian reported in August that Nagayeva's brother, Uvais, 32, was killed by Russian troops in May 2001.

The human rights group Memorial records that Uvais Nagayev was dragged from his family home with a friend, Zaur Dagayev, 29, by Russian troops. They were later forced to lie down on gravestones in a nearby cemetery and shot. Dagayev was killed outright, but Nagayev feigned death and returned home.

Six days later he was again taken from his home by Russian troops, but did not return. His family told Memorial he had been tortured, killed and his body blown up with explosives to mask its identity.

The two girls' elder sister, Amina, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that she did not believe Amnat was a suicide bomber. At that time, Roza Nagayeva and Mairam Tubarova were being sought by police, and were thought to have fled to Baku or Moscow.

Amina said: "I don't believe they went to the planes with explosives. They never spoke about such things - about war, about blowing something up. They were kind girls. Quiet."